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&nbspBy: Queenie MendoncaIndian Community Demand Justice:
"Lyvita Gomes was a woman of faith, a woman of prayer," Rev. Daniel Hartnett said during Mass. "She should not have died the way she died. My prayer is that...

&nbspBy: Edmond FernandesWe are into a modern age and a church ruling on dress code has raised many eyebrows. The dress code, applicable to both men and women, prohibits sleeveless clothings, T-shirts with cheeky messages, short skirts, or, in short all dresses, which do not conform to the `modesty' code. But the question arises as to whether we can really afford to gamble big at this stage especially at a time when youngsters do not really care for any religious

&nbspBy: Charmaine Albuquerque, IndiaI was searching for an advertisement on YouTube of a bygone era the other day, when I came across this ad of a well known clothing brand. However the one thing that struck me odd was the tag line, which basically implied that, one had to be the user of that particular brand to be complete! It made me wonder – were those who did not have the purchasing power, nor liked the brand mere mortals and incomplete? To my simple mind, this did not make any sense. The word complete, as defined in a dictionary, did not help much to put

&nbspBy: Nelson Lewis, BahrainMy name is Rajiv Patankar and I come from a conservative, orthodox family and many marriages that have taken place in our family and amongst our relations were arranged ones. With this trend and custom in our family, my relations naturally wanted me to get married to one of the many girls that they carted me to see. Though I felt that if I were to marry any of these girls, she could have been an ideal housewife, however, she would not have been an ideal partner with whom I could talk professionally or on an intellectual plane or she could have assisted me in my business

&nbspBy: Newton D'Souza, USAA forlorn deer corpse was scattered on the shoulder of interstate I-10 in San Bernardino valley, and a little further, on a smaller mound, a flower wreath had been placed delicately. You could almost catch the freshness of the begonias although one whizzed past it at 80 mph. 'Mike. Mark my words. This is indeed true' Neena contended, as her eyes followed the waning accident scene. 'Accidents might masquerade as unexpected events, but in reality there's always to script.'

&nbspBy: Dr. B. M. Hegde, IndiaI was at a college day function three days ago when an agitated young medico was in a great hurry to see me immediately. He looked very agitated and I did not want him to suffer any more. He had come there with one of his very senior professors who had pacified him a lot already. I excused myself from the dais and went down to meet him in the green room. He had called my house first and then he came to the venue directly. He could not speak properly

&nbspBy: Maxwel Crasta, IndiaAs the title suggests I'm writing about the grey days of my life. Everyone has their own I believe. Well it goes like this. Accompanied by my daily routine to get to work, I was in a mood of computing the chores involved. In order to prioritize I was shaping my French beard to a clean cut. The glimpse of my moustache shook me as I saw a grey one among the others. It was a thin long line of hair but it was grey, I mean it was white. Why me

&nbspBy: Alfie D'Souza, IllinoisBefore I moved to US in 1990, Christmas celebrations in my hometown Mangalore, was very meaningful and very traditional -- like visiting homes singing Christmas carols, going to the Christmas eve midnight mass attired in new clothing, and after the Church ceremony partying and dancing at the clubs or hotels, and even on streets or beaches under the moonlit skies

&nbspBy: Arjun Pinto, DubaiI have been regular traveler off late…. For my Job asks me to do so, I travel the Middle East & Africa region…. I will never be late whatever the mode of transport may be….it’s always there with in me…I used to be at the bus stop (during schooldays) at least 1hr before the arrival of the school bus and so the saga continues. I love sitting in the airport lobby either being on the net or chatting to fellow passengers. I was traveling to Iraq and was again at the airport

&nbspBy: Norma Moras, Saudi Arabia'How fortunate we are' I sighed looking at the beggar children scuttle everywhere from person to person, car to car at the traffic signal with their hands clutched on a small shallow bowl. There were hardly some pennies, cluttering loudly, to feed them to look after them. They showed their tummies which is almost concave in appearance and their torn clothes which could not tear any more. Shabby, dirty and stinking but nothing could dissuade their spirit, running around, burdened with only now and today

&nbspBy: Rajanikanth Shenoy, KudpiI was reminiscing over the past. Suddenly I was reminded of the Sixties when my brother declared that our parents have not given us the right name. He went on to the extent that we must approach a Notary Public and change our names filing an affidavit costing 5 Rupees. I was shocked to hear that. For a moment, I too was confused and thought, my name is not right. It has a girl's name to begin with and her husband's name to end with! Then I told him, sky is not

&nbspBy: Madhu, MangaloreHere, I would like to share an incident that took place a couple of days ago. I had been for Mass and I came across an aged religious nun who came upto me and began telling me that she had a nephew for whom she was seeking a suitable girl. She spoke in detail about why she thought he is the best eligible bachelor I would find. Ok fine...I thought., now she’s going to ask me for my photograph...And lo, I was in for a surprise.

&nbspBy: Vera Alvares, India"You cannot begin to help the world unless you begin to call things by their right names." said Confucius. In the Global hunger index released on October 16th 2008, India ranks 66th among the nations of the world! The major threat of hunger is in 33 countries, including India. Rising food prices have worsened the situation. Even after 60 long years of glorious democracy, India has not been able to feed all its billion children. Why? Not being a political analyst does not hinder me from believing that alleviating hunger IS NOT the top priority of any government- remaining in power is!

&nbspBy: Charmaine Albuquerque, IndiaLet me tell you a story…A professional from my team was away from her seat yesterday for most part of the day. I reached out to her concerned that she might be feeling unwell and what she then unfolds gets me thinking. Her husband and she have had an argument...not uncommon among married couples you would say. But what caught my attention was the reason. She says - I quote "We claim that we are members of

&nbspBy: Arjun Pinto, DubaiThe next day was a Friday and I was as usual planning to go for a movie. It was at about 10pm I was leaving my flat while I saw the whole family in the elevator again. It was obvious they were all going on holiday as they had a few bags with them. I wanted to tell them that I too belonged to the place where

&nbspBy: Rashmi Diana, India……….Ok so here I am again, to tell you guys a few sides of ONE story; I know I have taken longer than two elephants’ gestation periods, one after the other, to come back, but I knew where to come running, when I came back from my hiatus. Well, here’s the story, this sort of a thing would never happen to me .........or so I deluded. Anyway, I had to ride a bus in crowded Bangalore (I’m too apathetic to use the “politically” correct name to the city.

&nbspBy: Ryan Fernandes, IndiaLife seems to be pretty hectic these days. I wake up early in the morning; well not exactly early but early enough to be called early. I rush through with the morning routine with barely a glance at the newspaper which I so religiously go through otherwise and rush to the hospital. All coz I'm posted in the Labour Theatre and I have to be there at 8 sharp coz God forbid there be a delivery.

&nbspBy: Sonia Earl Joy, UAERuby’s life was good. She was expecting her second baby and was very happy as her first one was four years old now, was independent and needed company. Ruby and her husband Ronald had good jobs with multi national companies, good pay checks …of course… plus the perks! Living in UAE for the past eight years, struggling to come up in life, now was the time to take a break thought Ruby. They had a good house, good helper, a wonderful child

&nbspBy: Charmaine Albuquerque, IndiaYour cheatin' heart will make you weep; You'll cry and cry and try to sleep; But slee-eep won't come the whole night through;
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you. I am sure all you Elvis Presley fans out there will agree, that hearing Elvis belt out the number, is something that words cannot describe. A search on what prompted Hank Williams to come up with this number, tells me that it was the thought of his first wife Audrey, which inspired him to write the song while driving with his second

&nbspBy: Tanya Pinto, CanadaOur baby is crying. My husband has just taken his phone away from her. He wipes off the drool from it. She protests with more cries and puts her hands in the air crying for the phone back. He picks her up and turns to me. "She is only interested in my phone." The crying continues. My husband then takes her flying in the air. The crying stops and is replaced by smiles, laughter and giggles.